TRENTON — “Hey baby, you OK?” Mike asks his girlfriend as she sits down next to him.
“Yeah, I’m OK,” Toni says, and she puts her head on his shoulder. Mike thinks it’s safe to move in for a kiss.
“Slow down,” she says, pushing him back. “Just because I’ve decided to take you back, it doesn’t erase the fact that you cheated on me.” He looks away sheepishly.
“Look, we’re going to be using condoms from now on,” Toni says. “And tomorrow, we’re getting tested. And that’s that.”
She kisses him, and Mike manages a little smile.
The scene is from a soap opera with a purpose: To use short videos to go beyond pamphlets on safe sex and deliver the message to women who might otherwise tune it out.
Nurse educator Rachel Jones developed the education campaign, using professional actors and scripts based on focus groups with women in Newark and Jersey City. Mike and Toni and the “other woman,” Valerie, are in a pilot video available online.
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